Busy year ahead for Community Board

A busy year looms for the Motueka Community Board, with plenty of submissions, communications, decisions and monitoring of council projects in the pipeline and ready to roll.

The board holds its first formal meeting for the year tomorrow, but two brief but item-filled informal meetings held on January 10th and 24th demonstrated the need perhaps for a mid-January formal meeting next year, says chairman David Ogilvie.

The TDC's Long Term Plan and the Local Government Commission's amalgamation scheme will be major focal points in the first half of this calendar year, David says. "I would recommend strongly, despite the detail in each document, that Board members consider carefully the implications of these significant reports," he writes in his report to the board.

The agenda for tomorrow's meeting reflects an increasing number of diverse topics, including erosion at Tapu Bay, the state of Motueka's stormwater drains, flooding issues and the river stopbanks, further walkways and cycleways, a school cycling scheme, the planned swimming pool, and submissions on the waste management plan.

David says the immediate task ahead is a result possibly of the nine-week break. "The agenda reflects also the role that the Community Board is playing within the Council and within the community," he adds.

"It may be a consequence of the Christmas and summer holidays, but there seems to be a new dynamic and energy locally, which is obvious in the various meetings and community groups that I attend."

The meeting starts at 4pm at the Motueka Service Centre meeting room with a public forum leading off. Here anyone can address the board with their concerns or ideas. At around 4.30pm the board meeting proper will start.

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